David Dawson, (born 4 March 1972) is a British dancer and choreographer. Since his career debut, Dawson has released over 20 creations. Noted for his atmospheric, emotionally physical pieces, Dawson received numerous honours and awards. Education and dance career Born in London, Dawson began to dance at the age of 7 and received his early training at Rona Hart School of Dance and the Arts Educational School. He went on to train at the Royal Ballet School, in dance and choreography. In 1991 he received the Alicia Markova Award, won the Prix de Lausanne, and was offered a contract by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Under the direction of Sir Peter Wright he performed leading roles in all the classical repertoire as well as in ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Peter Wright and David Bintley. He was nominated as Best Newcomer of the Season by 'Dance & Dancers' magazine in 1992. In 1994, he joined the English National Ballet under the direction of Derek Deane as a soloist. A year later, he moved to Amsterdam to perform with Wayne Eagling's Dutch National Ballet. Here Dawson was able to continue dancing in classical productions as well as explore more neo-classical and modern repertoire in the works of George Balanchine, Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen. Dawson worked with choreographers, and created roles, in new ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Bruce, Wayne Eagling, Ted Brandsen, Mauro Bigonzetti, Itzik Gallili, Redha, and Christopher D'Amboise. Subsequently, he joined Ballet Frankfurt, where he worked with William Forsythe, and performed for two more years before deciding to devote his time to creating his own new works. Dawson ended his dance career in 2002. Choreographic career Dawson choreographed his first ballet in 1997, while with the Dutch National Ballet. It's then artistic director, Wayne Eagling, encouraged him to create for the company's choreographic workshop. This experience resulted in Dawson's first major creation for the main company, A Million Kisses to my Skin, in 2000. He received the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2003 for choreography and nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award as Best Classical Choreographer for The Grey Area. His process of choreographing this ballet was vividly illustrated in Tim Couchman's film 'The Grey Area' in Creation. Dawson became the first British choreographer to create a ballet (Reverence) for the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet